Distinguished Service
honorable texas veterans
Blacks have performed in service to Texas in every conflict. A slave named “Joseph” and called Joe, was among the few survivors at the Battle of the Alamo. In February of 1836, Joe was brought to Bexar to the site of the Alamo and on March 6, 1836, with musket in hand, was among the defenders of the Alamo. Joe was the slave of William B. Travis, Commander of the Republic of Texas army who was wounded and eventually killed during the battle. When the Mexican troops overran the stronghold, Joe was taken as a prisoner, interrogated by Santa Anna, and allowed to escape custody as a prisoner-of-war. Another Alamo slave and defender known as John worked as a store clerk in San Antonio and was left in the Alamo when his slaveholder reportedly was sent out for supplies, leaving John to die in the battle on March 6, 1836.
William Baton Ball | Civil War | Buffalo Soldiers
William Baton Ball (W.B. Ball) was born on February 15, 1844, in Danville, Kentucky. As a boy, he lived for several years near Columbia, Tennessee, with Lee Ball, a bachelor and slave trader. As a youngster of 12 or 13 years, he traveled throughout the South with his master. Ball affiliated with the Union forces early in the Civil War when blacks worked as servants to white officers and was assigned to Major Darius Warner of the 113th Ohio Infantry. In the battle of Chickamauga, Warner was wounded, and Ball escorted him home to London, Ohio. In February of 1865, after the federal government began to recruit blacks to serve as soldiers, Ball officially enlisted in the 16th Colored Infantry.
At war’s end, while stationed in Columbus; Ohio, Ball was assigned guard duty when President Lincoln’s funeral train came through and often told the story of how he passed out from exhaustion during the tragic procession. Ball re-enlisted when Congress authorized several regiments of black soldiers for Western frontier duty to defend settlers who were moving onto the Great Plains. Ball decided to move to Texas, accompanied by his friend, Leonard Ilsley, an abolitionist, and circuit rider from Maine who founded the first Anglo Baptist Church in 1858 and later established several black churches in the area.
Buffalo Soldiers Formation
On July 28, 1866, the U.S. Congress authorized six regiments of black troops – two of cavalry and four of infantry – to be added to the U.S. Army later named the “Buffalo Soldiers.” The army offered young black men an opportunity for social and economic advancement soldiers, earning $13 a month plus food, clothing and shelter which was more than most could earn. The men enlisted for five years, and ranged in occupations like farmer, teamster, baker, waiter, and painter, among others. Around 20 percent of U.S. Cavalry troops serving during the Indian Wars were buffalo soldiers, who participated in at least 177 conflicts.
The mustering in of the 9th Cavalry took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, in August and September of 1866. The soldiers spent the winter organizing and training until they were ordered to San Antonio in April 1867. There they were joined by most of their officers and their commanding officer, Colonel Edward Hatch. Their mission was to secure the road from San Antonio to El Paso and restore and maintain order in areas disrupted by the Native, many of whom were frustrated with life on Indian reservations and broken promises by the federal government. The black soldiers, facing their own forms of discrimination, were tasked with removing the group under government order.
Honorable Service
By 1880, the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments minimized Indian resistance in Texas and the 9th Cavalry was ordered to Indian Territory and what later became Oklahoma, to prevent white settlers from illegally settling on Indian land. The 10th Cavalry remained in Apache territory until the early 1890s when they relocated to Montana to round up the Cree. The Buffalo soldiers opened new roads and mapped vast areas of the West. They recovered thousands of head of stolen livestock for civilians, brought dozens of horse thieves to justice, and pursued Indian raiders, often having to stay on the move for months at a time. After the Indians had been displaced from West Texas, the soldiers were assigned to pursue them into New Mexico, Colorado, and the Dakotas.
WORLD WAR I
George Washington Antoine was a physician born on September 20, 1877, in Chenango, Texas, then a town of about forty residents in northeastern Brazoria County. His parents were Lee Antoine and Maria (Coleman) Antoine. George attended Guadalupe College in Seguin, Texas, for three sessions and studied algebra and Latin. Guadalupe College was a liberal arts school for blacks and offered a classical curriculum. Antoine then attended Meharry Medical College School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, and graduated in 1906. Meharry was at this time a medical department with Walden University, a historically black school founded by Methodist Episcopal Church missionaries. Antoine was one of six Texans in a graduating class of thirty-seven.
In 1917, as the United States entered World War I, Antoine volunteered for service in France. He reported to Fort Des Moines Medical Officers Training Camp but after only thirty-eight days was transferred first to Camp Funston at Fort Riley near Manhattan, Kansas, and then to Camp Logan in Houston. He was made a medical officer with the rank of first lieutenant and was assigned to Depot Company K in the 370th Infantry Regiment of the Ninety-third Division, an all-black and transported to France in April 1918.
In addition to treating casualties, the doctors of the 370th also treated cases of the deadly Spanish influenza. Lieutenant Antoine was assigned to care for the wounded men of the Ninety-second and Ninety-third divisions and remained in France after the November 11 armistice. In December, he accompanied his patients back to Camp Upton, New York, and on February 15 and was assigned to provide care to a detachment of these troops as they were transported by train to San Antonio and was discharged on February 23, 1919.
WORLD WAR II
Congress passed a national draft law in September 1940, and whether they were drafted or voluntarily enlisted, Texans flowed into all branches of the U.S. military services throughout the war. Units directly associated with Texas included the 36th Infantry Division, 19th Infantry Division, and 112th Cavalry Regiment; but many others relocated to the state for training. The draft law directed that men inducted must be at least five feet, five inches tall, pass a vision examination (with or without eyeglasses), possess half of their own teeth, and not have a criminal record.
Racial Violence and Hostilities.
Established military installations, such as Fort Bliss near El Paso, the large Army Air Forces complex in San Antonio, and Camp Hood near Killeen, grew in area and personnel. Social conditions emanating from World War II motivated minorities to demand equal rights in Texas. Blacks, suffering from segregation under the "separate but equal" clause of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), saw no change in attitude by Governor Stevenson. The pervasive patterns of “Jim Crow” policies segregated schools, restaurants, hotels, libraries, and most theaters throughout the 1940s and violence erupted in public life.
Many blacks served in support units during the war within Engineer Aviation Battalions (EAB), with trained and skilled engineers and construction workers, were one of the more significant support units. The self-contained EAB became the core of aviation engineering efforts during the war and the transfer dreams of untrained and underutilized black laborers serving in the army. The original concept for the EAB envisioned a small group of skilled construction and engineer troops, closely trained alongside air units, with the ability to repair bomb-damaged airfields, to camouflage airfields and if necessary, to defend airfields.
Air Force Leads Integration
The troops would also be capable of constructing light duty airfields in forward locations. Most of the black EAB units formed during World War II served in the Pacific or China-Burma-India Theaters of Operation. The first two black aviation engineer units shipped out of the United States were the 810th EAB and the 811th EAB. In July 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act, which, among other things, created an independent United States Air Force. In January 1948, Kelly Field became Kelly Air Force Base and on 3 February 1948, the facility was renamed Lackland AFB after Brigadier General Frank Lackland, who was commissioned into the regular Army after serving in the National Guard, District of Columbia.
At Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, black counselors advised both blacks and whites, and basic training was totally integrated. Blacks could attend most schools at Lackland, and no noticeable social segregation among officers, but some among non-commissioned officers. In contrast with Maxwell AFB in Alabama, only a small number of blacks were assigned to white units, and most were assigned to the 3817th Base Service Squadron and was manned by blacks, and though they worked with whites on a duty interpersonal basis, they were housed in separate barracks and served in their own mess halls.
Executive Order 9981 - First in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement
In February 1948, Truman called on Congress to enact the recommendations and though Southern Senators threatened a filibuster, Truman moved ahead using his executive powers. Truman began by appointing the first Black American judge to the Federal bench, named several other blacks to high-ranking administrative positions, and most importantly, on the 26th of July 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed the executive order establishing the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, committing the government to integrate the segregated armed forces.
Executive Order 9981 stated that “there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.” Although the military initially attempted to resist the order, nearly full integration would be achieved by the end of the war. In August 1949, black and white servicemen integrated Sommers’ drug store in downtown San Antonio, resulting in white protest. First, three whites entered the store and ordered four sundaes, explaining their buddy would join them momentarily. Once the ice cream had been served a fourth, a black, joined them at the counter. This initially upset the white manager, but all four were able to eat and leave in peace.
Distinguished Descendant
COLONEL JAYSON T. POTTS | tEXAS AIR NATIONAL GUARD
Descendant Jayson Torrey (Tor-ray) Potts, the great-great grandson of Martha (Miller) Clay-Drummer, Riley Drummer (Sweet Home), and George Wilcox (Jakes Colony) was born at Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona on November 14, 1971. He attended public school in San Antonio, Texas and was an all-around athlete who was equally academically gifted and astute. Jayson graduated from Texas State University with a degree in accounting in 1994 and received his commission into the U.S. Air Force upon graduation. Originally the top selectee for Pilot Training, he was forced to forgo the appointment due to possible issues with head gear because of having had a broken nose during a high school baseball game.
Lieutenant Potts completed Joint Specialized Undergraduate Navigator Training, and was assigned to Dyess AFB, Texas, as a Navigator in 1996 and deployed in support of various contingencies including OPERATIONS Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and Inherent Resolve. In an interview with the Abilene Reporter on 11 January 1999, he would remark on his decision to remain in Germany while others in the Team were scheduled to return to Texas the following day: “I don’t mind staying when the people I arrived with leave” [he said Sunday while delayed in Hungary before flying to Bosnia.] “It might be tough on some of the married guys, but I’m not in a rush to get anywhere.”
[Being ordered on overseas missions with his squadron reminds Potts of why he joined in the first place.]
“I’ve been an athlete all my life, whether it was baseball, basketball, or football,” he said. “You develop teamwork skills, and I found those in the Air Force. Everyone here works as a team. During his three rotations in Germany, the captain has managed to visit Norway, Italy, France, Holland, and Luxembourg. I like being in Europe because it has so much history,” he said. “But I haven’t managed to get a castle yet. I suppose I should buy all the gifts for people that I haven’t bought for my last two times here. Beyond that, I want to spend days I am not flying just relaxing.”
Colonel Potts ended his twenty-seven years of service as a Master Navigator having served as Commander of the 386th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron; Ali Al Salem AB, Kuwait, oversaw five hurricane evacuations as a Master Combat Systems Officer, served as the 136th Operations Support Squadron Commander, and Civil Service Air Operations Officer with the 136th Airlift Wing; Texas Air National Guard. In 2022, he received his Executive MBA from Texas Christian University.
Peter Allen traveled from Huntsville, Alabama to participate in the Texas Revolution as a free black musician. Allen’s widow Mary’s obituary recounted Peter’s service in the Texas Revolution and his refusal to save his own life when offered his freedom in return for again playing “Home, Sweet Home” at the request of the Mexican commander. The Huntsville Independent recalled his determination to remain with his comrades and share their fate when he replied to the Mexican commander, “No, I’ll not play, but I’ll just go along with the rest of the boys.”
In the spirit and vein of Peter Allen, on July 12, 2022, he honorably and willingly answered the call and accepted his final mission.
